Ogden’s fourth date with Gretta was not so much a date as pleasant walk in a park. They spoke of good and noble things and they laughed. At one point they found themselves sitting on a bench near a playground.

As they talked, Ogden found himself watching two pairs of people. One of these was two college age guys throwing a football around, the other was (Ogden assumed) an older brother (age seven?) standing around looking somewhat bored while his younger sister (perhaps three) played with dolls on the grass.

But Ogden watched as the boy watched the two guys with their football, and neither of them was that great at throwing a spiral, and they commonly dropped their catches, but they were having fun.

And then a very quick but notable thing happened. The guy who didn’t have the ball started running and indicated that the guy with the ball should throw it ahead of him. Which he did. And as he released it, Ogden saw the thrower’s eyes go wide with fear, and he yelled “Hey Ed, Don’t -”

Ogden looked to see what caused the thrower’s tension. ‘Ed’ had apparently not heard his friend’s exclamation, and was running to catch the ball. And he was not aware that he was heading straight to where the little girl was sitting. He was only a few feet from running her over.

And now Ogden was yelling “Hey, watch out –“

But then (it all happened quite quickly) he saw the seven year old boy put his hands up and take three step to put himself in Ed’s path and then Ed, completely unaware of his proximity to the children, tumbled over the boy. And fell just short of the little girl. And the little girl played on, not even aware that she just barely missed injury.

Ed was momentarily confused and perhaps a little angry when the other guy came running over.
“Dude, you nearly killed that girl!”
“I – what?”
“My bad for throwing it, but you gotta watch where you’re going. This kid just saved her by stopping you.”
“I . . oh.”
The other college guy turned to talk to the boy. “Pretty brave, kid.”

The boy smiled, with an expression that showed that he was aware that he had just done a good thing. He talked with the two college guys for a bit and then they resumed their game of catch – at a safe distance.

Ogden had to say something. He went over and said to the boy – “Excellent. You just risked pain and injury to help your sister. I can only hope that I might do something that brave someday.”

The boy nodded and Ogden walked back to Gretta. He said “Someday, when I have sons, I’m going to tell them this story.”